It was over three years ago that Amanda Pogony’s 1996 Honda Accord disappeared without a trace.

Pogony says she reported the theft to police, and when she asked about finding it, they laughed at her. She and her husband assumed the car had been stripped for parts, and the Brooklyn couple used Zipcar to get from place to place from then on. So they were quite surprised to receive a call from the NYPD that the car had been located in a Queens chop shop and was being returned to Pogony.

But the unexpected discovery so long after the fact wasn’t the most interesting thing. Pogony says the car was returned with serious pimptastic updates, including “a brand-new V-8 engine, tinted windows, oversized tires with special hubcaps – and custom valve stem caps shaped like bullet casings.” The man who purchased the car after its theft also added a leather interior and manual transmission.

Until Pogony gets a new VIN number for the car and an updated registration (and learns to drive stick), it’s parked at her parents’ home in New Jersey. But she said it’s been a bit of a curiousity for neighbors:

“The mailman rang the bell the other day and asked about it,” she said. “Everyone wants to buy the car now.”

[NYDN]

Woman’s stolen ’96 Honda found years later, pimped out is a post from: The Inquisitr

The ruling orthodoxy on socio-economics is that difficult times drive a rise in crime, but maybe as a sign of how bad things may have become, at least one crime is decreasing: car theft.

In Baltimore, the number of cars stolen went from 6,662 in 2006 to just over 5,100 last year, and through Jan. 10, car theft dropped 35 percent this year, compared with the same period in 2008.

According to the Baltimore Sun, one reason is improved security in later model cars, but the other driving factor is demand: like the rest of the car industry, people aren’t buying cars, and that includes stolen ones.

“If no one can buy a car, no one can buy a car,” Baltimore County Police Sgt. Robert Jagoe told the paper “if you can’t afford to buy a Corvette off the lot, you can’t afford to buy one from a criminal. With no place to sell their goods, thieves have stopped stealing as many cars.”

See, there is a positive side to a recession.

Recession Causes Car Thefts To…..Decrease is a post from: The Inquisitr